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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25618057">The Wrong End of the Telescope</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple'>Mersheeple</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hearts&amp;Cauldrons Prompts [48]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Dark, Drabbles, F/M, Fluff, Sadness, Slice of Life, a bit of everything</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:36:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,137</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25618057</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of Drabbles featuring Severus, Hermione and both of them together.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Severus Snape</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Hearts&amp;Cauldrons Prompts [48]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805746</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>70</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Abandonment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaomiJameston/gifts">NaomiJameston</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The title of this work is a Dr Seuss quote about nonsense: "Sometimes you have to look at life from the wrong end of the telescope."</p>
<p>I liked this because, having started these drabbles today, I realised that they are quite...mad. Just like me.</p>
<p>NJ, I am gifting this to you because you love your angst so I'm hoping this will make you happy! &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She didn’t want to leave him. She didn’t want to let go. She didn’t want him to leave her. She gripped his hand tight, begging him to stay.</p>
<p>He looked in her eyes and smiled softly. She fell into his mind as he sent her images of their life together; the first time she saved him, the first time he kissed her, the first time they made love.</p>
<p>The day they were told it was just a matter of time. The way they held each other and cried. The way he loved her. And she sighed and let him go.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Glass</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt word: Glass - WARNING: INJURY/IMPLIED DEATH</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>NJ, what are you doing to me...? I am ANGST!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her magic burst out of her, firing a thousand fragments of glass from the pulverised windows towards the men rushing at her. She screamed, firing spells and curses at those that came too close. The glass around her sparkled and twinkled in the firelight, fires that burned in destruction but looked like life itself.</p>
<p>The glass shattered around her and she felt her soul sliced to ribbons by the destruction of her heart. Everything was lost, they were on the losing side. Her eyes became glass as the fire inside them died, broken, and smashed and destroyed by the War.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Laughter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt: Laughter - no warnings (fluff, implied smut)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And at 01:10 I am heading to bed! LOL. Before I do, have some fluff...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her eyes leaked, her shoulders shook, her breath wheezed, her heart beat hard and fast. It was exhilarating. And then she looked at him.</p>
<p>His eyes crinkled at the corners, his lips turned upwards and he snorted, just once.</p>
<p>She couldn’t help herself. She clambered over his lap and kissed his lips, moaning softly as his hands brushed her thighs. There was something about him that made her desperate and wanton for him.</p>
<p>It seemed her biggest turn on, her biggest kink, was his laughter.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Mourning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Canon Death</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Morning!<br/>A Mourning drabble for the Morning! Aren't I clever? :P</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His eyes watered as he looked at the stone edifice. He had never had time to grieve. He hadn’t been able to take the risk. And now he had the time and it was the worst thing he ever had to do. He conjured a wreath, black roses and silver ribbons and heather.</p>
<p>He walked towards the white stone and placed the wreath under the name of the first person who ever showed they cared.</p>
<p>“Goodbye Albus.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Poison</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt word: Poison (No Warnings)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Nope...not killing him off. Not happening! Not this time anyway... &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He felt it burning through him, destroying his veins, breaking into his body, and making his muscles seize. He hears her voice, a mere whisper in the distance and he smiled, letting her take him home. He was ready, the poison in his veins and then…</p>
<p>He gagged, choking on the solid lump in his throat. Bezoar. His eyes snapped open and he saw her. Fluffy hair and big teeth and a dusting of freckles. A smudge of dirt on her nose, a stripe of blood on her shirt and drying tears on her cheeks.</p>
<p>“The poison’s neutralised, Professor Snape.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Silence</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt word - Silence (Warnings for bodily functions)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>We are getting to the end of the month and the end of the madness of posting...</p>
<p>I've had some rough news today (nothing to worry about but, not what I was hoping for) and so...I'm posting what I can while I still have the chance.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Every night he screamed until his throat burned and was raw. Every night he cried out, shuddering, and jerking on the bed as the poison burned its way through him. Every night his voice broke through to her as he begged and pleaded for death. His chest heaved, his muscles twitched and he voided his bowels and then collapsed on the bed.</p>
<p>And still she sat there, ready to help any way she could, silent, contemplative, watching.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Morning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt word - Morning (No warnings)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He stood framed by the window, watching the sun rise over the Black Lake and sighed heavily. The light glanced off the ice and sparkled on the snow and he felt at peace. A smile touched his lips as he watched the mating pair of Kestrels swooping around together, hunting or just flirting, he didn’t know.</p>
<p>A soft whine from behind him made him turn around, reaching into the crib with a smile.</p>
<p>“Good morning little man. Let’s leave Mummy to sleep, shall we?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Betrayal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt Word - Betrayal (No warnings)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“How could you do this to me? I can’t believe you would do this! After everything we have been through! How could you hurt me like this?”</p>
<p>“Hermione, I’m sorry, if I’d known you’d feel this way…” She burst into tears, sobbing as if her heart was broken.</p>
<p>“You did this to me! I’m pregnant and you did this! How could you do this to me?”</p>
<p>He would definitely have to remember not to eat the last Ginger Newt.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Objective</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt Word - Objective</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>When I first saw this word on my Prompt List I THOUGHT it said "Objection" and my prompt would literally have been a link to the AMAZING fic Objection by the WONDERFUL Sharkeygirl...I was disappointed when I realised it didn't so...</p>
<p>https://archiveofourown.org/works/15154226/chapters/35143184 &lt;--- READ IT!!!</p>
<p>Anyway! On with the drabble...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He had a plan. He knew exactly what he was going to do. He even knew how and when he was going to do it. He just had to get all his ducks in a row.</p>
<p>He just had to stick to his plan.</p>
<p>Except then she broke his plan apart when she kissed him. It still led to the same result but had he really fulfilled his objective?</p>
<p>He only wanted her to notice him after all.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Smile</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt Word - Smile. No Warnings...pure fluff</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He hadn’t truly done it in so long that it felt foreign. He wasn’t sure how to feel about it. But she had asked him to do it and he always found it difficult to say no to her. He looked at her and thought about their first night together. Their first kiss. The first time he had seen her naked. The first time he had felt her hand on his skin.</p>
<p>He closed his eyes and nodded, willing to do what she asked.</p>
<p>And then he smiled.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Robot</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt Word - Robot</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He liked the way it walked around, beeping, and whistling and flashing lights. She had somehow managed to make it so that it worked even at Hogwarts, a feat in itself. He liked when it beeped and repeated whatever noises he made at it, usually in a funny voice. He liked the little robot.</p>
<p>And no, he didn’t care that it was meant to be a gift to help their son learn to crawl.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. If</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt word - If (ANGST WARNING)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The world was alight with a million new possibilities. All she had to do was wake up and pick one. All she had to do was get up and start her day. The War was long over. She was a single independent woman. All she had to do was put one foot in front of the other and start her day, start her new life.</p>
<p>If only it wasn’t so hard. If only he wasn’t gone. If only she actually wanted to keep living without him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Routine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt word - Routine. Anxiety themes</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alarm clock off. Into the bathroom. Don’t touch the doorframe. Shower on. Don’t touch the toilet seat. Into the shower. Don’t touch the temperature. Don’t touch the…you touched the temperature, didn’t you? Get it right. Get it right. Too hot. Too cold. Too hot. Too cold. Give up. Try again tomorrow.</p>
<p>Clothes on. Lots of buttons. Get it right. Don’t stop. Lights off. Lights on. Fire off. Lights off. Lights on. Check the fire. Lights off. Door closed. Wards up. Wards down. Check the door. Check the lock. Check the door. Check the lock. Wards up.</p>
<p>Start the day.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Despair</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt word - Despair (ANGST)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He wouldn’t stop crying. He just cried all day and all night. He cried all the time. How could she deal with this? </p><p>There was only one thing for it. She would have to do the thing she had promised she never would.</p><p>“This is your son, Severus. His name is Malakai. Please help us.” With her messy face and tattered clothes, she looked a state. He looked at her, looked at the babe in her arms and reached out, enfolding her in a hug as she sobbed.</p><p>“I’ve got you now. I’ve got you both.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Snow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt word - Snow (mildly cracky)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He watched out of the window as the flakes fell. She stood in the middle of the garden, spinning around, and laughing, her mouth open so she could catch the flakes. He watched as her eyes sparkled and her skin flushed from the cold. She was beautiful.</p>
<p>The sun would melt the snow within an hour but she didn’t care. It was pristine now and that was all that mattered.</p>
<p>And he would share his space in front of the fire with her. As long as she didn’t try to get him out there with her.</p>
<p>Kneazels don’t like snow.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Mask</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt Word - Mask (no Warnings)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know these drabbles are teeny tiny but I am SO super proud of this one...LOL!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She found it in the chest at the end of his bed. She had never seen it before. He found her sitting staring at it and he didn’t know how to react. How to explain why he had kept it. How to explain to her that it was a part of his past but it didn’t really mean anything.</p>
<p>But she didn’t even ask the questions. She just smiled at him sadly, her hands shaking as she re-folded his frock coat, hiding away the mask that had been Professor Snape.<br/> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Pity</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt Word - Pity (ANGST!!!)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She had left him that morning to go shopping. That’s what she had said. She would be back later. That was what she had planned. They would have dinner together and then sit in front of the television and watch an old soppy movie.</p>
<p>They were going to cuddle. They were going to…</p>
<p>And then came the knock at the door and the face of a man he didn’t know, with an emotion he didn’t want to name on his face and in his eyes.</p>
<p>He didn’t hear the words. But he felt the emotion in his soul.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Distortion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt Word - Distortion (Warning for Implied Character Death)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The crashing noises echoed around her, drowning out the screams of children too young to really understand what they were fighting for. The sound of the giants approaching and the screams of the falling made her sick.</p>
<p>Seamus’s explosions occurred too close to her head and the whole world began to ring. She thought she heard someone say something but through the ringing she wasn’t sure until she saw the man in black and the flash of light heading straight for her heart.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Holy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt Word - Holy (Warning for smut!)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He had never been a religious man. He had never even been a spiritual man.</p>
<p>But the way her tongue and lips worked his cock had him blaspheming with the best of them.</p>
<p>“Oh Holy Fuck!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Origin</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt word - Origin, no warnings</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wanted to do something to make myself smile after my angry/sad upload so here is a slightly nicer drabble...I hope you like it... &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>He was the product of an unhappy marriage. An unhappy mistake. The by-product of a situation that neither truly wanted.</p>
<p>His beginning was tainted by this unhappiness. His whole life had been a show of bitterness and unhappiness and desolation and deception.</p>
<p>But the moment he awoke, Masterless, free, un-sacrificed, un-punished…that was the moment his life started. That was his origin story</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Guide</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt word - Guide (No Warnings)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I truly think you need it to be shorter than this, Hermione. Not everyone is a prolific reader like us.”</p><p>“But Severus if you had spent your whole life thinking that magic and witches and unicorns were just fairy tales, wouldn’t you want to know <i>everything</i> about it when you found out it was real?” He smiled at her indulgently, nodding while internally rolling his eyes.</p><p>Only she could write a Muggleborn guide with 394 pages.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Install</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Prompt Word - Install (no warnings)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I don’t want it.”</p><p>“The castle does.”</p><p>“I don’t care what the bloody castle wants. It can want all it likes.”</p><p>“You’ve done it before though.”</p><p>“I don’t give a toss. We both know how shit it was then.”</p><p>“Severus, it won’t let anyone else in the damn office!”</p><p>With a growl, he marched through the castle and into the Headmaster’s office, slamming the door behind him. He didn’t want the position but the castle wouldn’t install anyone else.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Abandon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Why did he have to leave? WARNING: ANGST</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am so so sorry guys. This is a sad story...Not sure why my head went here...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The house was abandoned. She had walked past here a hundred times it felt, but this was the first time truly approaching it. It was completely abandoned. She did not know when it had happened, but she knew it was completely empty. The roof was collapsing, the windows were smashed, the porch outside was broken and crumbling. The garden was overgrown with thorns and nettles. </p><p>“Oh Severus, where did you go?” She stared up at the house in Spinner’s End, a tear rolling down her weathered cheek and she sighed, scattering his ashes to the wind and turning on her heel to return to their home.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Negative</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Going to upload a few of these today...luckily they are all short! LOL &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She hated waiting for test results. It made her sick to her stomach. Even with him there with her, she still couldn’t stand it.</p>
<p>One moment of madness, one mistake, one misadventure. That’s all it had been. And now this. Now she had to count the seconds until…</p>
<p>
  <i>Negative</i>
</p>
<p>She had never been so happy to fail a test. She threw the white stick in the bin and hugged him. It was obviously just the stress that meant she skipped her period.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Lost</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Warnings for angst...specifically memory loss...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“You’re a lovely young lady, anyone ever tell you that?” Severus smiled at the girl sitting next to him, helping him eat.</p>
<p>“Yes, my husband does.” She smiled at him and it made her skin glow and her eyes sparkle.</p>
<p>“He’s a very lucky man. Does he know that?” He smiled at her again, she seemed so familiar to him and he liked seeing her smile.</p>
<p>“No, I’m not sure he does know really.”</p>
<p>“Make sure you tell him. He’s a very lucky man. What’s your name?”</p>
<p>“I will tell him. My name is Hermione.”</p>
<p>“I knew a Hermione once.”</p>
  </div></div>
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